1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a relay server, a relay server control method, and a storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
A content print system in which a print instruction is transmitted from a client to a server and the server received the print instruction converts the content to be printed into print data has been proposed. A cloud computing attracting attention is also one of system configurations for providing service from a server to a client.
As described above, there has conventionally been known a configuration in which a Web server provides a service to a client. A cloud computing attracting attention in recent years is also a configuration in which a Web server provides a service to a client. A main feature of the cloud computing is that data conversion and data processing are executed in a distributed manner using many computing resources so as to process requests from many clients in a simultaneous manner. At present, too many vendors provide various types of services by realizing Web services on a cloud computing environment for implementing the cloud computing in a disorderly way.
Among vendors who provide services on a cloud computing environment, Google (registered trademark) is a notable vendor. Google (registered trademark) not only establishes many large-scale data centers but also develops a data communication structure between devices and services so as to provide services in cooperation with devices. For example, Google (registered trademark) has developed a data communication structure for providing services in cooperation with image forming devices and has disclosed an interface for providing data communication between the cloud computing environment prepared by Google (registered trademark) and image forming devices. In this system, the image forming device receives a print request from a service and executes printing.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-196054 discloses a system in which a client that has received a print request transmits client information and a print data generation request to a server and the server acquires print control information corresponding to client information to thereby generate print data.
There has been proposed a general-purpose print service provided by a cloud computing vendor. It is contemplated that a print service device for providing the print service transmits a print setting screen generated based on printer information to a user device. The print setting screen includes, for example, printer names that are selectably displayed, and a user can designate a printer (image forming device) serving as a print output destination by selecting the corresponding printer name.
In the future, there will be an increasing opportunity for device vendors to provide services in cooperation with image forming devices in accordance with the interface disclosed by the cloud computing vendor. Thus, each device vendor wishes to implement a unique function in a service to be provided to differentiate it from other vendors. However, the general-purpose print service provided by the cloud computing vendor has low affinity for the image forming devices. For example, a print service device may not support the function (status display function) that provides the status display of an image forming device. In this case, the print service device cannot transmit a print setting screen including information indicating the status of an image forming device to a user device. Thus, a user cannot know the status of the image forming device, resulting in difficulty in determining whether or not the image forming device is printable.